The Metropolis Council accepted a plan Thursday to construct a housing advanced within the Bronx for former inmates with critical well being points despite opposition from Mayor Adams, whose crew mentioned the vote is moot and the venture received’t transfer ahead.
The “Just Home” plan — which proposes creating greater than 80 reasonably priced and supportive residences for ex-inmates with critical well being issues on the Jacobi Hospital campus in Morris Park — sailed by way of the Council in a 36-9 vote, with three abstensions. With the Council authorization within the books, the subsequent step would sometimes be for the venture’s developer, the Fortune Society, to start out making ready for building.
However the mayor’s crew says that received’t occur.
As an alternative, Randy Mastro, Adams’ first deputy mayor, mentioned forward of the vote that the administration is engaged on a brand new proposal that will contain nonetheless constructing reasonably priced housing on the Jacobi website, however not reserve it for ex-inmates, whereas transferring the Simply Dwelling element to a brand new website close to Brooklyn’s Broadway Junction. Mastro declined to establish the precise Brooklyn website, say how quickly the brand new proposal might materialize or clarify how it will be doable to get the ball rolling instantly on a completely new plan, given town’s prolonged, sophisticated land use processes.
Jacobi Hospital within the Bronx. (Shutterstock)
By way of the Council’s authorization of Simply Dwelling being constructed within the Bronx, Mastro mentioned the Adams administration will merely ignore it.
Throughout an unrelated press convention earlier within the day in Brooklyn, Adams himself put it extra bluntly: “Their recommendation is not going to impact what we’re going to do.”
Adams’ place marks a pointy turnaround. Since his administration introduced Simply Dwelling in 2022, the mayor has been a supporter of the venture and pushed again towards claims from Morris Park residents, together with Republican Councilwoman Kristy Marmorato, that offering housing for ex-inmates would jeopardize public security within the neighborhood.
That has led Council Democrats to accuse the mayor of flip-flopping on Simply Dwelling in a unadorned bid to attain political factors. Sources acquainted with the matter have mentioned Marmorato even provided to attempt to safe neighborhood help for the mayor’s reelection in trade for a dedication from his crew to attempt to kill Simply Dwelling — a cost Mastro denies.
Underscoring the administration’s new strategy, Mastro despatched a letter late Wednesday to Council Speaker Adrienne Adams claiming she was legally required to name off the vote as a result of it couldn’t transfer ahead with out mayoral approval.
Metropolis Council Speaker Adrienne Adams is pictured throughout a listening to at Metropolis Corridor on Thursday, Sept. 25, 2025. (Emil Cohen/NYC Council Media Unit)
However in a press convention earlier than the vote, the speaker mentioned Mastro is useless incorrect. Calling his letter “ridiculous” and “disgraceful,” she famous the board of Well being + Hospitals is the entity that will get closing say on the venture, and its members already accepted the plan final 12 months and have proven no signal of planning to reverse themselves.
“It’s alarming that the mayor and his top official have revealed such incompetence and a lack of understanding in governing the city, and it is shameful that they’re trying,” she mentioned. “Thankfully the two of them will not be relevant to this project in three months,” she added, referring to the upcoming election.
The unique intention behind Simply Dwelling was to offer housing for low-income inmates leaving Rikers Island who’re too sick to have the ability to reside in a homeless shelter. Well being points that will qualify an applicant for the housing embrace stage 4 most cancers, congestive coronary heart failure and end-stage renal illness, in line with Well being + Hospitals.
Stanley Richards, the CEO of the Fortune Society, the nonprofit tapped to manage Simply Dwelling, mentioned after the Council’s vote that he stays hopeful the venture will develop into a actuality and vowed to “counter fear with facts.”
“The fact is that providing formerly incarcerated people with supportive housing does not make our neighborhoods less safe—on the contrary, it makes us all safer,” mentioned Richards. “Just Home will prevent physically vulnerable individuals from entering our overburdened shelters, winding up on the streets, or languishing on Rikers Island. As we say at Fortune, everyone deserves a home, and today, the City Council has upheld and affirmed that belief.”
Initially Revealed: September 25, 2025 at 4:58 PM EDT
